


The Accidental Slytherin

by rhye



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-02
Updated: 2011-07-02
Packaged: 2017-10-20 22:52:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/217962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhye/pseuds/rhye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter's accidental slide to the Dark Side.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Accidental Slytherin

No one much paid attention to Peter Pettigrew. For a long time, he mourned this fact. He was doomed to live in the shadows of his friends, always wishing others would notice him. It wasn’t until fifth year that Peter realized the value in living int he shadows. He could do pretty much whatever he liked, and no one would notice.

It started small, as such things usually do. He drank firewhiskey right at breakfast in the Great Hall. No one even looked his way twice. He leaned over to peak off Amos Diggory’s test in Charms. No one seemed to care. Eventually, Peter began to see this less as a curse and more as a boon. Still, it angered him that not even his very best mates noticed.

And thus, Peter hatched a plan to get his best mates to notice. He started by stopping and talking to Malfoy in the hallway. James, Sirius, and Remus didn’t even stop walking long enough to see. Next, he sat at the Slytherin table for dinner, but after dinner no one even mentioned that he had been missing, let alone where he was. On Hogsmeade, he bought a drink for Regulus Black, sure that Sirius had to notice this, had to take offense. Sirius, though, was too busy trying to fruitlessly charm Madam Rosmerta. Peter simply sat in a huff.

From that day on, he trailed Slytherins. He ate with Slytherins. He did homework with Slytherins. He was sure that his friends simply must notice sooner or later, but they didn’t seem to pay him any mind at all.

That was when he began to open his ears, to listen to what these people were saying. Much of it, he disagreed with instinctively. Some of it, though, was not as foolish as James, Sirius, and Remus had assumed all along. Some of it was downright sensible. In his quiet, private moments, he mulled over the things his new friends said. Oh, of course he knew they weren’t really his friends. They tolerated him only, but it was all James, Sirius, and Remus had ever done as well, so it was good enough for Peter.

As Peter became more self-conscious about his involvement, he also began to disguise it. He was no longer hanging out with the Slytherins in order to rile up his friends. Now, he wanted to hear what they had to say, wanted to understand what they were doing. He knew that his so-called Gryffindor friends would never understand this, so Peter put more space between himself and the Slytherins. He carefully crafted excuses not to hang out with his mates. Of course, it wouldn’t have mattered if his excuses were rubbish-- it’s not as if anyone ever listened to them.

He knew that no one suspected his involvement with them, but the truth was that peter told himself that he didn’t completely buy into either party line. Thus, no one was more surprised than he was the day he took a Dark Mark.

Peter, it seemed, at tricked and slipped his way into something over his head. And now he couldn’t even be sure what side he believed.

But he did know one thing: he did not want to die.


End file.
